Human Rights/Sexual Desires: Incest/Pedophilia/Rape

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RODRÍGUEZ ♦ 38 controversial notions of “human nature” constitute the subtext. This notion, central to nineteenth century Naturalism, served positivistic regimes to explain social deviancy in physiological terms—impulses and hereditary factors that could not be held in check either by the individual or a weak State. I may be wrong, but the old concept of “human nature” resonates in Freudian concepts such as the libido, in the relationship between repression and impulses that lead to his theories of civilization and its discontents, strongly accented by liberal ideas of individualism, civil society, and “the common good” which are the hidden presuppositions 3 Echoes of these hypotheses can also be heard in legal and medical uses of DNA, postmodern versions of genetic theory that today serve neo-liberal and global paradigms and regimes. Horror and science fiction imaginaries are also related to “human nature,” “the libido,” and hereditary hypotheses. Actually, they hyperbolically and allegorically enact the new sensibilities of fear mediated by criminology or science and associated either to all kinds of experiments performed on human bodies—in laboratories, hospitals, or prisons—or to space program imaginaries that invent mutants of all kinds. In a much mediated fashion, it could be suggested that human nature arguments contradict the philosophies of hedonism embraced by queer studies today, even with all their differential twists. Stitching these paradigms together sequentially might sound farfetched. However remnants of these ideas emerge when reading newspaper articles about pedophilia, incest, and rape between the lines. Ghosts of Naturalism are present mostly in the given or the unexplained, as well as in the idioms and sensibilities of costumbrismo, as visible in the language of field workers or peasants transcribed by newspaper reporters verbatim. In the transference of these ideas from the fields of physiology to those of psychology, and from there to hard sciences, the genealogies of humans and their nature vibrate. My claim is that although pedophilia, incest, and rape are intimately connected to instincts and primary impulses (nature), there is no sexual pleasure, desire or hedonism involved. Rather, incest, pedophilia, and rape are related to fear and hate, to adult disempowerment, inadequacy and social resentment (Maddock and Larson). To vent these frustrations, children become ideal, available, and “permissible” “safe” victims. In this sense, feminist readings of erotic and horror films in terms of “the gaze,” “the lack,” or pleasure in seeing women suffer, offer very generative insights. They provide theories on the “pervert’s” mindset (Nicaraguan newspapers call it aberrant) which, combined with political theories of failed or rogue States, lead to profitable scholarly directions. 4D My strategies to answer the questions posed above come from feminist philosophers of law speaking about “contested concepts,” and feminist cultural critics discussions on pornography and horror films. I also make use of literary analysis to identify the discursive fields in which the events are HIOL ♦ Hispanic Issues On Line ♦ Fall 2009
39 ♦ HUMAN RIGHTS/SEXUAL DESIRES: INCEST, PEDOPHILIA, RAPE mapped. My way of approaching these events is first a close reading of texts to identify the language used to report these cases. A close reading helps identify the narrative forms and various epistemic frames and institutions involved in these issues, and, above all, the warp and weft of intersecting ideas. Considering these same events considering discussions held in other fields, for instance, theories of libidinal impulses combined with images set for purchase by horror and pornographic films, sheds light on the mindset of the perpetrators—in particular the extreme cases of snuff films. 5D I recognize the tension between incest and libidinal impulses—which SpivakD6 has addressed regarding Freud’s suspension of his studies on hysteria—as well as that implicit in lifting the concept of human nature from the terrain of 19th century Naturalism and positivism and placing it on the ground of hard science, particularly related to genetic code and DNA theories as analogue. However, my sense is that these two tensions subtend the theoretical treatment of the perpetrator’s behavior, which is why I use feminism to unravel the question. I am also burdened by the impact of horror film narratives in remote rural communities and peasant mentalities, places that we would believe are outside of the narrative power of these images. However, illegal film reproduction is rampant and entertaining television programs that intentionally reproduce these narratives (not to mention the press) are far-reaching, in such a manner that they have become embedded in the sensibilities of people and part of public imaginaries. I am aware of such conundrums. I have concerns about our discipline and I am haunted by the idea that rapist horror narratives are the new academic frontier in visual studies, narratives that grant academics, like me, a language to speak about ungraspable yet real things—although as critics that is very much our task. My privilege is that I work within the realities of failed States where the nature/nurture divide is not marked by a strict division between the public and private as in other States. Little or no governance, State evasion of responsibilities is clear when women are publicly held accountable for men’s sexual crimes and when mass media espouses the idea of family responsibility as opposed to the State’s obligation to protect the rights of children. Blaming the victims and naturalizing behavior is perhaps the stimulus and protective mantle that culture extends to men. Narrative Languages, Frames, Codes Public narratives that relate cases of incest, pedophilia, and rape are characterized by a mixture of narrative codes, some more psychological, some more sentimental, some legal, and most of them embedded in a mix of costumbrista and naturalistic discourse. This style alerts us to several issues: HIOL ♦ Hispanic Issues On Line ♦ Fall 2009
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Human Rights/Sexual Desires: Incest/Pedophilia/Rape

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